Letter: West Seneca Board is great with 3 members

West Seneca Board doing great job with 3 members

The voters of West Seneca should not be fooled by the statement of board members that the town has missed opportunities with only three board members. Nothing could be further from the truth. Case in point, when asked at a board meeting what opportunities were missed, amazingly the board was unable to come up with even one example.

Here are the facts. In the past two years and 10 months, with three board members, more has been accomplished than has been in the past 20 years with a board of five, with a savings to taxpayers of approximately $200,000 in salary and benefits. Projects completed or approved: Town Hall renovations and Police Headquarters expansion; major renovations to ice rink, pool and Veterans’ Park; roof and wall repairs at Highway Building Garage; reconstruction of streets; new tennis and basketball courts at Fireman’s Park; major sewer repairs for 80 percent of the town; and Senior Center upgrades.

A board of five invites corruption, incompetence and back-door deals. When the Town Board consisted of five members, just about every department, from Animal Control to the Police and Supervisor’s Office, was investigated by the FBI, criminal investigators from Washington, auditors and investigators from Albany. The five-member board was responsible for bringing the AmeriCorps program to West Seneca, which ultimately cost taxpayers millions of dollars.

The people behind the petition to upsize the board stated, “It is the will of the people of West Seneca.” This is not true. The people voted overwhelming to downsize in 2009. This vote to upsize the board is a political scam by a few people and their political cronies trying to get back in power.